Early on in my herb gardening I had bought several plants marked just "Oregano". Never again!! They spread all over the place & had only a faint, musty oregano scent & very little flavor. The only thing they were good for was attracting bees while in bloom. Turns out that once herb gardening became so popular, many growers just grew anything & everything willy-nilly so as to jump on the $$ bandwagon. Thus there are lots of awful-tasting/smelling "mutts" out there - most noticeably among the mints & oreganos.

So now whenever I purchase a plant, I always do 1) a pinch & sniff/taste first, & 2) try whenever possible to purchase named varieties, not just "oregano".

Anyway, if you do want to keep the variety you have (although it doesn't sound like it's worth it), don't let it go to seed & keep those runners in check. :)

Oh - one more thing. When buying oregano plants, keep in mind that there are some varieties that have been developed primarily for ornamental use only. They're still edible, but don't really have good culinary qualities because they've been bred for their blooms. So if you want plants for cooking, don't bother buying any designated as "ornamentals".

I love thyme in the garden, and when cooking especially in poultry dishes. Sage, once again a great specialty of poultry. Mint or related (and I believe lemon balm is) needs to be discipllined, stongly! Or it will take over your garden. Parsley ... I grow both curley and flat leaved. Sometimes I like the stronger flavor, sometimes I like the milder and the looks of the former. If you like cooking Asian or central/south American dishes, cilantro is a must. The leaves for a fresh taste, the seeds for longer-cooked dishes (cilantro, chinese parsley, coriander all are from the same plant).

Oregano? I've had such mixed results that i prefer to buy mine dry rather than trying to grow it on my own. I wound up with spreading plants that tasted like ... well, almost nothing.

If you want to grow mint, either do it in containers or with a deep strong barrier to the rest of your property. Otherwise, you'll end up like me - pulling up "mutt mint" (aka nasty unnamed mint) for TWELVE YEARS planted by the original owner of my farm. Mint reproduces by seeds, rooted stems, & underground runners. It becomes an alien force if you don't want it where it wants to go - which is EVERYWHERE.

In addition, when buying mint, make SURE you pinch off a bit & do a smell/taste test. Mints have become very hybridized these days since the 1970's herb craze that many are just "mutts" - nasty smelling & tasting with no culinary or ornamental virtues whatsoever.

OMG I have the same problem with mutt mint. My mother in law has absolutely no common sense when she started growing these .
I've got a backyard full of out of control herbs growing.

I live in the South East of England and find that sage, rosemary (it is now an enormous bush), a small bay tree and horseradish grow well, I have had problems with thyme. My oregano died this summer unfortunately. Horseradish is like mint, it will take over so I have it in a container, I also grow wild garlic in a container.

I have found that herbs bought from supermarkets aren't that good for growing on.